Soil and grain

Chinese name
Chinese社稷
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinshèjì
Wade–Gilesshe-chi
Vietnamese name
Vietnamese alphabetxã tắc
Chữ Hán社稷
Korean name
Hangul사직
Transcriptions
Revised Romanizationsajik
Japanese name
Kanji社稷
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburnshashoku

Soil and grain was a common Chinese political term in the Sinosphere for the state. Shejitan, the altars of soil and grain, were constructed alongside ancestral altars. Chinese monarchs of the Ming and Qing dynasties performed ceremonies of soil and grain to affirm their sovereignty at the Beijing Shejitan.

During the Chinese Warring States period, ministers defied their rulers by claiming a greater loyalty to the "soil and grain".[1]

A similar concept to sheji is that of the earth deities Tudi and Houtu.[2] It is also linked to Sheshen or deities which are sometimes directly called soil (社)

Houtu is the overlord of all the Tudigongs ("Lord of Local Land"), Sheji ("the State"), Shan Shen ("God of Mountains"), City Gods ("God of Local City"), and landlord gods world wide.

  1. ^ Envisioning eternal empire: Chinese political thought of the Warring States era
  2. ^ Yang, C. K. Religion in Chinese Society : A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (1967 [1961]). Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. page 97